GENE Hackman may be on the wrong side of 70, but the Hollywood tough guy is still not someone to be messed with.

The double Oscar-winner retains the flinty features and a hint of danger that has characterised his 40-year career as an actor. The ex-marine can also give as good as he gets, as two belligerent young men discovered in Los Angeles recently.

Following a minor traffic accident The French Connection star began to apologize for bumping their car. The next minute, he found himself in a street brawl.

"These two pretty good sized guys were being really intimidating. I got a couple of good shots in then this other guy jumped on me and we had this ugly wrestling match on the ground," Hackman recalls. No charges were brought and he wishes the incident would now be forgotten.

It hasn't done any harm to the crusty actor's profile, nor the prospects of his latest film, the Bosnian-war action film Behind Enemy Lines. From a publicist's point of view the timing was quite opportune.

Directed by Irish music-video hotshot John Moore, Behind Enemy Lines has Hackman playing the commander of an aircraft carrier who defies NATO protocol to rescue an American pilot (Owen Wilson).

Since September 11, Hollywood has been faced with a dilemma of what to do with military themed blockbusters like Behind Enemy Lines and the soon-to-be released Black Hawk Down, based on the 1993 intervention in Somalia.

Fox was originally going to release Behind Enemy Lines in early 2002, but decided to bring the date forward. Its patriotic triumphalism is now in vogue in war-on-terrorism America.

While not involved in the release decision, Hackman says he understands it. "From what I understand people like it and they like it at this time. The film exemplifies the best of American films in terms of the military."

Behind Enemy Lines is another in a long line of films where Hackman has exemplified the tough everyman American.

"These kinds of military characters kind of choose me, really," he says. "I did a few of those roles and it's really hard to break out of that mould once you're in," says Hackman, who had a three-year stint in the marines when he was a teenager.